‘Hamilton’s America’: New PBS Documentary Takes Us Behind The Scenes Of A Smash

For the last twelve months and some change, America has been stricken with Hamilton fever. The broadway sensation has made Alexander Hamilton cool and star, writer, and composer Lin-Manuel Miranda a MacArthur Grant-winning, Pulitzer prize-earning, non-stop free-styling household name. So it should come as no surprise that PBS, America’s home for arts and culture, has produced a brand new documentary about the creation of the smash hit. Hamilton’s America kicks off the latest season of Great Performances and serves as a love letter to the show and its fans.

Hamilton’s America gives us an inside look at the creation of the musical, Hamilton’s life, Miranda’s life, and how those Founding Fathers influenced America today. We get to see intimate behind-the-scenes moments with the show’s cast and crew as well as cleverly staged field trips dropping Hamilton‘s stars in the same historical environs mentioned in the musical. Miranda sits at Hamilton’s writing desk and poses for a photo, Daveed Diggs, Christopher Jackson, Okieriete Onaodowan, and Anthony Ramos explore Valley Forge, and Miranda reads through Hamilton and Burr’s actual final letters to each other with Leslie Odom, Jr. The film also offers the insight of historians and public figures. One of the most fascinating things is watching how major political figures from both American parties —the Obamas, the Bushes, Paul Ryan, and Elizabeth Warren — see Hamilton’s life (and the role of the musical) in different ways.

The best part of Hamilton’s America is that it’s a feast for fans. Not everyone will get a chance to see the production in person and, while it would have been nice for Great Performances to actually have produced a film version of the original production, this feels like a fine enough consolation prize. By seeing key musical numbers evolve from Miranda’s pen to the Broadway stage, we get the illusion of greater intimacy with the art.

From a cinematic angle, though, there’s less to chew up. There’s nothing really all that particularly ground-breaking about the documentary save for its prescience. Director Alex Horwitz was able to capture Miranda in the earliest days of the writing process. It’s quite a feat since no one could have possibly predicted that Hamilton would go on to be such a watermark in a American musical theater history. We see Miranda diddling away on his piano as early as 2008. We have high-quality footage of his now-famous first performance for President Barack Obama. We catch up with him struggling to compose “My Shot.” More than that, the film dips into key moments in the process and we watch as Miranda’s own personal life dovetails with the show. He’s moving into a new home, welcoming a baby, and scrambling to finish the score all at the same time. In the film, the magnitude of these changes isn’t lost on him, but the joke is the 2014 Miranda still has no clue what’s in store.

When Horwitz was pressed at the panel after the premiere about why he followed Miranda’s artistic journey from the very beginning — how he could be so sure that Hamilton would be a hit — he laughed and explained, “Because I know him!” Horwitz and Miranda were college roommates and the relationship gave Horwitz the certainty that Hamilton would not only morph into a show, but be a successful one.

Hamilton’s America is a gem of a watch for Broadway-obsessives and history nerds, but it might offer less oomph to a casual viewer.

Hamilton’s America debuts on PBS tonight at 9PM. You can live-stream it for free on PBS’s Facebook page by clicking here.